Shawnee (people)

Shawnee (people), Native American tribe of the Algonquian language family and of the Northeast culture area. The heart of their ancestral territory was along the Cumberland River in present-day Tennessee, with villages or hunting grounds in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio as well. In the late 17th century many Shawnee were living along the Ohio River in present-day Ohio. Because of raids by the Iroquois, they dispersed. Some migrated to Florida and by 1800 reached Texas. Most, however, went to what is now Georgia and South Carolina. Part of this group, known as the Eastern Shawnee, then moved to Pennsylvania with the Delaware tribe. The other part settled in Tennessee. Both were pushed back to Ohio by other tribes in 1730-1750; American expansion forced some into Indiana by 1795. The Shawnee first supported the French against the British and later the British against the Americans. After 1805 the Shawnee leader Tecumseh organized a multitribal movement to resist white expansion (see Tippecanoe, Battle of). In the 1830s, pressured by the Iroquois and the whites, they moved again. The Eastern Shawnee settled in Oklahoma. The other Ohio group moved first to a Kansas reservation and later to Oklahoma; where they live among the Cherokee. The Texas group, known as the Absentee Shawnee, was pushed north into Oklahoma in the mid-19th century. Today, people claiming Absentee Shawnee ancestry dwell mostly in central Oklahoma and have a separate tribal government from that of the Eastern and Cherokee Shawnee.

The early Shawnee had an Eastern Woodland culture. In summer, they lived in bark-covered houses in villages while the women farmed and the men hunted, and in winter they split into small hunting camps. The Shawnee belonged to patrilineal clans and lineages. Today they farm, ranch, and do various other work. Some are Protestants, but many adhere to traditional religions.

In 1990, 750 people claimed to be of Eastern Shawnee descent; Cherokee Shawnee descendants numbered 947; Absentee Shawnee numbered 1,279. The total number of people in 1990 who claimed to be of Shawnee descent was 6,179. In the 2000 U.S. census about 5,800 people identified themselves as Shawnee only; an additional 5,200 people reported being part Shawnee.

See also Native Americans of North America: Northeast.